Wednesday, September 26, 2012

We received excellent service
from our Canal Agent Roy in preparing for our transit thru the Canal into the
Pacific after enjoying 8 terrific years cruising the sunny Caribbean Sea.

By way of background, in 1510
the Spanish began settlement of the isthmus of Panama, the advantages of a
route thru Panama were evident and in 1534 King Charles V of Spain ordered the
first topographic survey for a proposed canal across a section of the 80 km
wide isthmus; but such monumental task was far beyond the possibilities of the
time.

A full three centuries later,
in 1879, Count Ferdinand de Lesseps created the Compagnie Universelle du Canal
Interoceanique de Panama.De Lesseps
began the construction of a sea-level canal in 1880, but even the considerable
skill of the French engineers could not overcome the disease or the geographic
and climatic conditions they encountered on the isthmus, nor could they make up
for the mismanagement in France that brought the enterprise to financial ruin in
1889.

In 1894, a second French company,
the Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama, prepared to resume work on the
Canal.Their technical committee
collected topographical information and recommended the construction of a
lock-type canal on account of the sporadic Chagres river floods.However, the second company was unable to
obtain funding from the French Government or even private investors, and soon
bankruptcy forced them to sell their canal equipment, rights and ownership to
the United States Government.

In 1904 the US purchased the
rights of the French company at a cost of $40 million.But the previous year, in 1903, following
Panama’s declaration of Independence from Colombia, Panama and the United
States had signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty by which the United States understood
the construction of an interoceanic canal across the Isthmus of Panama.It took ten years, the labor of more than
75,000 men and women, and almost $400 million to complete the job.Like the French, the new builders faced unprecedented
problems: tropical diseases; frequent landslides; the complexity of the massive
volume of excavation needed; the enormous size of the locks; and the need to
establish entirely new communities, import materials, and organize work on an
unprecedented scale.

The Panama Canal opened to
traffic on Aug 15, 1914, and since then, thousands of vessels have transited
the waterway. On Sept 7, 1977, the governments of Panama and the United States
subscribed the Torrijos-Carter treaties-the Panama Canal and permanent
neutrality of the waterway-which upon its entry into force on October 1st,
1979, began the 20 year process whereby the Republic of Panama would recover
absolute control over its territory, always sovereign.

For a complete history of the
Canal we recommend reading David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize-winning account in
‘The Path Between the Seas’.

The transit of the Panama Canal
was a milestone for Sv KaijaSong.It
marks the end of our first 8 yrs of cruising and our commitment to carry on
with our adventure and sail across the South Pacific and beyond.

Our dream of cruising around
the world began for us during our transatlantic crossing which was a
re-enactment of Christopher Columbus maiden voyage to the new world.It was during that adventure that Kaija and I
determined that we shared a common dream and one that has kept us together
these past many years.It was also
during this exciting trip that we met our friend Vern Mountcastle III who is
affectionately known as Trip.That
friendship has grown and deepened over the years and we were pleased when he
agreed to join us for our Canal crossing.We were also joined by good friends Gerry and Susan Sv Vida Dulce, home port Seattle.

The actual crossing was a two
day affair.We met our adviser in the
flats of Colon on the evening of the 25th, arrived in the locks
about 6pm and were anchoring on Gaton Lake by about 8pm.The next morning at 6:30 a new adviser
arrived and we motored across the lake and arrived on the Pacific side in
Balboa near noon.By the time we
completed the doubles of Balboa and Mira-Flores our adviser departed and we
proceeded to our anchorage at Las Breezes in Panama City.Hook down and all’s well on KaijaSong.

Welcome to our Blog

Welcome Aboard. Our Blog is a journal of our journey, a travel-log of our land and sea adventures.

We hope you enjoy our PicStories of the many places and faces we have been and met along the way. For us, it is a dream come true.

We are Believers. We believe there is a Greater Power than us...and that Power exists to provide the means to Live Our Dream. We believe what the mind can conceive AND BELIEVE...you CAN ACHIEVE. We are living proof! All Things Are Possible - Only Believe!

We learned early on that people don't PLAN to fail...they FAIL to plan. We encourage you to plan your dream and work your plan.

Live your plan each day until you are living your dream.

Dream your life....LIVE YOUR DREAM!...It's What the Great Creator Intended.

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Vessel & Crew

The S/y KaijaSong is a comfortable, sloop rigged Beneteau cruiser, home to Kaija & Gary. KS is 50 feet LOA with a 15-foot beam, draft of 6 feet and mast height of 67 feet.
Beginning with Hurricane Ivan in Trinidad 2004 we have enjoyed exciting experiences we never dreamed possible. In the past 12 amazingly fun filled years we have enjoyed the sunny Caribbean and South Pacific. Sept 2012 we transited the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean. Visiting the Galapagos, Easter Islands, the Marqueses, Tuamotos, Society Islands including Bora Bora, Maupiti and Mopelia, the Cook Island of Suwarrow, American and Western Samoa, Tonga and currently in Fiji with side trips to New Zealand and Australia.
Without a schdule, the weather is our guide. We survived Cyclone Winston and it's destructive 200 k/hr winds this season. We are grateful to the Maker of the Wind and Master of the Waves for Journey Mercies as we plan our passages and Sail On!.
We are glad to have you along and hope you enjoy the ride. We welcome your comments and feedback.